1. The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe
2. How to Read Literature Like a Professor - by Thomas C. Foster
3. Winesburg, Ohio - by Sherwood Anderson (Approved)
Essay #1: Every Trip is a Quest
Journeys are one of the most frequently used topics for a novel. Often a journey starts with a specific reason or a motivation. In Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio is a good example of a journey started with a certain purpose. The novel presents the main character of the novel goes through various kinds of both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. The man character leaves the town, where he spent a big part of his time in, to find his real life as himself.
George Willard is introduced as the main character of the book, Winesburg, Ohio. He works as a reporter for the town, Winesburg. His job as the reporter got him to be related to many other citizens of Winesburg. Also he had a mother who was died in the end of the novel. Through his mom’s death, George Willard realizes that he is not satisfied with his life in Winesburg and leaves as he wished.
The very first chapter of How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster explains about how each journey has it’s own purpose. The journey in Winesburg, Ohio also had it’s own motivation and a purpose. It can be inferred from a sentence in the book. “Winesburg had disappeared and his life there had become but a background on which to paint the dreams of his method.” (Anderson 204) George Willard, after going through harsh and confusing times of his life, he decides to leave the town to find peace and his own free life as an adult. There is no journey with random reasons. In every journey, the character that goes through the journey has his/her own motivation and reason to start it.
Essay #2: Sometimes Vampires are not that far away from you.
In the novel, Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, everyone characters have their own problems that are described as vampires in Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Vampires are commonly known as the mythical creature that sucks human blood and bring them pain, but sometimes vampires can be used as a metaphor that describe problems that a person has. In Winesburg, Ohio, the main character’s mother feels that marrying her husband was the biggest failure in her life, and she believes that her husband is a symbolic vampire of her life.
Elizabeth Willard is the main character of the chapter “Mother”. She is the mother of the main character, George Willard. She got married in a young age, she tries to find “true love”, but she fails. Her husband Tom Willard is very uncaring for her, even though she is sick and slowly dying. One day she finds Tom scolding their son, Elizabeth gets mad decides to kill Tom.
The existence of Tom Willard disturbs Elizabeth very much to the point where she even decides to murder her own husband. “He has chosen to be the voice of evil and I will kill him.” (Anderson 27) In the Elizabeth’s point of view, her husband Tom Willard just appears to be the most evil thing in the world and shows her desire to kill him. Tom does not literally sucks blood from Elizabeth, but his uncaring and hatred do big damages to Elizabeth physical and emotional health. According to Thomas C. Foster’s definition the symbolic vampire in the novel is Tom Willard that brings pain to a person and make them suffer. In many stories, a symbolic vampire are used to describe the different types of pain that a character goes through.
Essay #3: More than just a punch.
In Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, the author claims that violence’s in the novels are often has reasons and purpose for being included in the novel. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson shows an example in his book. The main character gets knocked over by another flat character in the book. The author, Sherwood Anderson most likely has included a violet scene in his book in order to explain his ways of thoughts.
As the main character George Willard has his own desire for a girl named Belle Carpenter. As Belle and George were kissing, Belle’s original date comes and witnessed the moment of Willard and Carpenter kissing. At first Ed Handby, Belle’s original date, did not find beating George to be necessary. But Willard’s behavior towards Belle mad him angry and caused him to use violence against Willard.
Foster wrote in his book that violence has reasons or they can be symbols of certain things. Anderson as the author of the novel decided to include his way of thoughts in the story. “The bartender did not want to beat the boy, who he thought had tried to take his woman away.” (Anderson 153) The author is trying to show his opinion that having too much desire for a thing can be very bad and turn some people’s away from you. The main character’s greed made the other to have bad opinions on him and in the end beating him. As it was clearly explained and defined in Foster’s book, violence is not just more than an action of bringing pain to the others. It has symbols and other meanings for it to be written in writings.
Essay #4: Yes, it is a symbol.
Many authors indirectly include symbols in their writings. Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio also has many indirectly written symbols in some stories. According to Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, depending on the reader anything can be defined to be a symbol.
The chapter “Death” in the Winesburg, Ohio, money was used as symbol. Elizabeth Willard, the main character of the chapter, was given eight hundred dollars from her dad. Her dad gave her the money, so that when she gets divorced and leave the town she could use it to start a new life for herself. Elizabeth, who thought that the eight hundred dollars to be useless, decides to kept them under the floorboard. But in the end of the novel, she dies and was not able to neither use the money nor even take it out from its hidden place.
In my own way of understanding of the book, I defined the eight hundred dollars as happiness and desire for life of Elizabeth Willard’s life. It was never literally written straight forward that the money was Elizabeth’s hope and happiness. But since the character of Elizabeth Willard was never happy through out the novel and also she lost her desire to live on. She hid the money as soon as she was married, and that was also the moment when she lost her joy and desire to live. “As for the eight hundred dollars, the dead woman had kept hidden for so long…” (Anderson 191) The quote shows how much she was sad and unpleasant until the end of the novel, not to mention that she gave up on herself and died without even struggling to try to live on. As Foster’s explanation of symbols, the simple eight hundred dollars was the important symbols of Winesburg, Ohio.
Essay #5: It’s more than just rain or snow.
Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor explains the important roles of weathers that take place in writings. Weathers in Winesburg, Ohio, also took a very important role to set up the mood and the atmosphere. Foster claims that describing weathers will not be useful unless it is used to describe the certain moods of the story. But the described weathers were used very well to show the mood and atmosphere of the written scene.
“Adventure” was a chapter that weather was finely described and was put in suitably. The central character of the chapter Alice Hindman was in love once in her life when she was young. After a while her beloved lover leaves her to seek his own fortune. But Alice decides to stay faithful to him. One day she was seized by an odd urge and runs outside naked to talk to an old man. Suddenly, she feels ashamed and comes back inside and accepts the fact that some people must live and die alone.
The weather of this scene was a rainy night. “And then one night when it rained Alice had an adventure. It frightened and confused her.” (Anderson 91) The rain and darkness of the night adds up and brings the combination of fear and confusion. Like many people actually do in real lives, people feel confused and afraid during rainy nights, especially when they are alone. Although the weather was written just like other weathers are described, but they described and symbolized the character’s mind in an indirect way.
Comment #1
Jin Kwon
Essay #3 (Violence)
Hey, Jin! I decided to comment on your essay since it seems so amazing out of everyone’s essay. I read your essay twice just to have the honor of commenting on your essay. Anyways lets get straight to it. Your essay overall is really good. The essay flows really fluently and naturally and I didn’t find any grammatical mistake. (Yay~!) But it would have been better if you gave more background information about the story (or the section) to the readers. Also just my opinion, but I wished that you had chosen a more happy, cheerful and exciting novels instead, because you are that kind of person. But in total your essay is very well written. Haha anyways have a great last day of your summer vacation.
- Sam Lee
Comment #2
Jay Park
Essay#5 (Weather)
Sup! Jay Park. Wow, I am actually the first one to comment on your fifth essay. Anyways, about your essay, it seems like a decent essay to me. It flows well in it’s own way. You gave perfect (?) examples from the novel. I have not read the novel but I can understand the situation of your examples, they are written with details. But in my opinion five paragraphs seems a bit too much for a three hundred words essay. That will make approximately sixty words per paragraph. I would say three is a suitable numbers of paragraphs for the essays. Overall it is a fine essay, Good Work haha anyways have a great last day of your summer vacation.
Winesburg, Ohio
by Sherwood Anderson
1. The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe
2. How to Read Literature Like a Professor - by Thomas C. Foster
3. Winesburg, Ohio - by Sherwood Anderson (Approved)
Essay #1: Every Trip is a Quest
Journeys are one of the most frequently used topics for a novel. Often a journey starts with a specific reason or a motivation. In Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio is a good example of a journey started with a certain purpose. The novel presents the main character of the novel goes through various kinds of both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. The man character leaves the town, where he spent a big part of his time in, to find his real life as himself.
George Willard is introduced as the main character of the book, Winesburg, Ohio. He works as a reporter for the town, Winesburg. His job as the reporter got him to be related to many other citizens of Winesburg. Also he had a mother who was died in the end of the novel. Through his mom’s death, George Willard realizes that he is not satisfied with his life in Winesburg and leaves as he wished.
The very first chapter of How to Read Literature like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster explains about how each journey has it’s own purpose. The journey in Winesburg, Ohio also had it’s own motivation and a purpose. It can be inferred from a sentence in the book. “Winesburg had disappeared and his life there had become but a background on which to paint the dreams of his method.” (Anderson 204) George Willard, after going through harsh and confusing times of his life, he decides to leave the town to find peace and his own free life as an adult. There is no journey with random reasons. In every journey, the character that goes through the journey has his/her own motivation and reason to start it.
Essay #2: Sometimes Vampires are not that far away from you.
In the novel, Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson, everyone characters have their own problems that are described as vampires in Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Vampires are commonly known as the mythical creature that sucks human blood and bring them pain, but sometimes vampires can be used as a metaphor that describe problems that a person has. In Winesburg, Ohio, the main character’s mother feels that marrying her husband was the biggest failure in her life, and she believes that her husband is a symbolic vampire of her life.
Elizabeth Willard is the main character of the chapter “Mother”. She is the mother of the main character, George Willard. She got married in a young age, she tries to find “true love”, but she fails. Her husband Tom Willard is very uncaring for her, even though she is sick and slowly dying. One day she finds Tom scolding their son, Elizabeth gets mad decides to kill Tom.
The existence of Tom Willard disturbs Elizabeth very much to the point where she even decides to murder her own husband. “He has chosen to be the voice of evil and I will kill him.” (Anderson 27) In the Elizabeth’s point of view, her husband Tom Willard just appears to be the most evil thing in the world and shows her desire to kill him. Tom does not literally sucks blood from Elizabeth, but his uncaring and hatred do big damages to Elizabeth physical and emotional health. According to Thomas C. Foster’s definition the symbolic vampire in the novel is Tom Willard that brings pain to a person and make them suffer. In many stories, a symbolic vampire are used to describe the different types of pain that a character goes through.
Essay #3: More than just a punch.
In Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, the author claims that violence’s in the novels are often has reasons and purpose for being included in the novel. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson shows an example in his book. The main character gets knocked over by another flat character in the book. The author, Sherwood Anderson most likely has included a violet scene in his book in order to explain his ways of thoughts.
As the main character George Willard has his own desire for a girl named Belle Carpenter. As Belle and George were kissing, Belle’s original date comes and witnessed the moment of Willard and Carpenter kissing. At first Ed Handby, Belle’s original date, did not find beating George to be necessary. But Willard’s behavior towards Belle mad him angry and caused him to use violence against Willard.
Foster wrote in his book that violence has reasons or they can be symbols of certain things. Anderson as the author of the novel decided to include his way of thoughts in the story. “The bartender did not want to beat the boy, who he thought had tried to take his woman away.” (Anderson 153) The author is trying to show his opinion that having too much desire for a thing can be very bad and turn some people’s away from you. The main character’s greed made the other to have bad opinions on him and in the end beating him. As it was clearly explained and defined in Foster’s book, violence is not just more than an action of bringing pain to the others. It has symbols and other meanings for it to be written in writings.
Essay #4: Yes, it is a symbol.
Many authors indirectly include symbols in their writings. Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio also has many indirectly written symbols in some stories. According to Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, depending on the reader anything can be defined to be a symbol.
The chapter “Death” in the Winesburg, Ohio, money was used as symbol. Elizabeth Willard, the main character of the chapter, was given eight hundred dollars from her dad. Her dad gave her the money, so that when she gets divorced and leave the town she could use it to start a new life for herself. Elizabeth, who thought that the eight hundred dollars to be useless, decides to kept them under the floorboard. But in the end of the novel, she dies and was not able to neither use the money nor even take it out from its hidden place.
In my own way of understanding of the book, I defined the eight hundred dollars as happiness and desire for life of Elizabeth Willard’s life. It was never literally written straight forward that the money was Elizabeth’s hope and happiness. But since the character of Elizabeth Willard was never happy through out the novel and also she lost her desire to live on. She hid the money as soon as she was married, and that was also the moment when she lost her joy and desire to live. “As for the eight hundred dollars, the dead woman had kept hidden for so long…” (Anderson 191) The quote shows how much she was sad and unpleasant until the end of the novel, not to mention that she gave up on herself and died without even struggling to try to live on. As Foster’s explanation of symbols, the simple eight hundred dollars was the important symbols of Winesburg, Ohio.
Essay #5: It’s more than just rain or snow.
Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor explains the important roles of weathers that take place in writings. Weathers in Winesburg, Ohio, also took a very important role to set up the mood and the atmosphere. Foster claims that describing weathers will not be useful unless it is used to describe the certain moods of the story. But the described weathers were used very well to show the mood and atmosphere of the written scene.
“Adventure” was a chapter that weather was finely described and was put in suitably. The central character of the chapter Alice Hindman was in love once in her life when she was young. After a while her beloved lover leaves her to seek his own fortune. But Alice decides to stay faithful to him. One day she was seized by an odd urge and runs outside naked to talk to an old man. Suddenly, she feels ashamed and comes back inside and accepts the fact that some people must live and die alone.
The weather of this scene was a rainy night. “And then one night when it rained Alice had an adventure. It frightened and confused her.” (Anderson 91) The rain and darkness of the night adds up and brings the combination of fear and confusion. Like many people actually do in real lives, people feel confused and afraid during rainy nights, especially when they are alone. Although the weather was written just like other weathers are described, but they described and symbolized the character’s mind in an indirect way.
Comment #1
Jin Kwon
Essay #3 (Violence)
Hey, Jin! I decided to comment on your essay since it seems so amazing out of everyone’s essay. I read your essay twice just to have the honor of commenting on your essay. Anyways lets get straight to it. Your essay overall is really good. The essay flows really fluently and naturally and I didn’t find any grammatical mistake. (Yay~!) But it would have been better if you gave more background information about the story (or the section) to the readers. Also just my opinion, but I wished that you had chosen a more happy, cheerful and exciting novels instead, because you are that kind of person. But in total your essay is very well written. Haha anyways have a great last day of your summer vacation.
- Sam Lee
Comment #2
Jay Park
Essay#5 (Weather)
Sup! Jay Park. Wow, I am actually the first one to comment on your fifth essay. Anyways, about your essay, it seems like a decent essay to me. It flows well in it’s own way. You gave perfect (?) examples from the novel. I have not read the novel but I can understand the situation of your examples, they are written with details. But in my opinion five paragraphs seems a bit too much for a three hundred words essay. That will make approximately sixty words per paragraph. I would say three is a suitable numbers of paragraphs for the essays. Overall it is a fine essay, Good Work haha anyways have a great last day of your summer vacation.
- Sam Lee